What: Members of the bizarro wait staff from "Conni's Avant Garde Restaurant" join forces with Cleveland Public Theatre artists to create a delicious piece of performance art, where audience members nosh on kielbasi and root-vegetable stew, belly up to a cash bar and become part of the show. Directed by Cynthia Croot.

Throughout its storied past, the more family-friendly O'Laughlin Dancing Academy alsoheld court at the address, as did the Irish American Social and Welfare Club, the predecessor of the West Side Irish-American Club.

Formally organized in 1931, the West Side Irish-American Club gravitated to the location, "ground zero," according to the group's early history penned by Judge Sean C. Gallagher, for many Irish organizations of the era.

In 1950, the club relocated, first to another spot in Cleveland and, later, to its current home in Olmsted Township. But back at the old stamping grounds at West 65th Street and Detroit Avenue, the ethnic club would hold weekly "socials" where members flocked to dance to Irish or American music provided by a small orchestra.

Those raucous dance-hall days, coupled with the neighborhood's rich ethnic stew and that delicious whiff of scandal, inspired "The Secret Social," opening this week at CPT.

Staged in the James Levin Theatre,in the very room where Hook's joint once flourished, the show is an original, devised work by CPT artists and members of the New York troupe that brought "Conni's Avant Garde Restaurant" -- the smash hit aptly described as "dinner theater of the absurd" -- to the Gordon Square Theatre for the last two years.

In an inspired move, a third artistic partner is the theater itself.

"You don't get to do that very often -- actually have one of your collaborators be the physical space you're working in," said Connie Hall, who played Sue James, the genial general manager who cheerfully did all the grunt work at the restaurant. "It's like another person in the room is the room."

The company's initial inspiration for the piece, said director Cynthia Croot, came from the veryarchitecture of that room.

"We were really charmed by not only the feel of the space -- the original moldings are still there -- but you also have the sense of who might have cut a rug there once upon a time."

A PowerPointpresentation on the history of the neighborhood (and some homemade wine) provided by West Side native and Cleveland Housing Court Judge Raymond Pianka served to further ignite their imaginations.

"Apparently, there were some nefarious activities that went on in the space," said Croot, with obvious delight. "High-stepping, high-living, bad behavior." (Eat your "Boardwalk Empire" heart out, Nucky Thompson.)

Those fabulously shady characters and "the immigrant populations that called the space home . . . made us interested in organizations and clubs," she said. "And in particular, secret organizations -- what it's like behind closed doors at these places we hear about, like [Yale University's] Skull and Bones."

A secret society

dedicated to festival

Of course, she adds, "in a 'Conni's' world, the secret society is not going to be one where people are wielding power over the universe and selling oil rights to Saudi Arabia -- they're going to be people who are having a different kind of fun."

Croot won't say exactly what form that fun will take -- it's a secret social, after all -- but here's a hint. During a rehearsal before Thanksgiving, the following props were piled on a long table: a plush penguin suit, a can of olive oil and a double burner.

A live band jammed in the far corner of the hall while the raven-haired Madame X (New York's Lucille Duncan) howled "I Put a Spell on You" and tried to help Boris (Cleveland's Val Kozlenko) become invisible.

Actor Jeffrey Frace -- who left New York for Seattle, where he teaches at the University of Washington -- strummed a guitar, tickled the ivories and played a child's accordion and trumpet. "He plays a mandolin, too!" Cleveland performer Lauren Joy Fraley offered brightly.

"It's a secret society that's dedicated to festival, to carnival. To dancing and partying," says Frace. The bar that opens at 6:30 p.m. before every performance won't hurt the bacchanalian spirit of "The Secret Social," either.

Frace stalked the Gordon Square Theatre last season in "Conni's Avant Garde Restaurant," swilling Wild Turkey and wearing sequin knickers as "Mrs. Robinson" (think Billy Idol gone to seed). He also taught a two-week workshop while he was here, and Fraley, who has composed an ode to tomatoes for "The Secret Social," was one of the participants.

The success of that workshop gave Raymond Bobgan, CPT's executive artistic director, the idea for the current, multicity artistic collaboration.

'Probably crazy' idea

leads to show

After last year's wildly popular run of "Conni's," Frace, Hall and other longtime servers at the metaphorical bistro/cabaret decided they had been dishing up demented skits and five courses of inventive comfort food long enough. They told Bobgan that, though they loved coming to Cleveland, they were hungry to do fresh material. To develop another show on par with "Conni's" would take a few years.

"I said, 'Listen, I have an idea that's probably crazy,' " Bobgan recalled. " 'Part of the reason we bring you [to town] is so that you can expose artists in Cleveland to other ways of thinking. What if a few of you came in and developed a new play with Cleveland artists?' "

Bobgan proposed a smaller-scale production. The elaborate dinner served during the performance could be cut back to a light supper. Local talent help could fill out the lead roles.

They loved the idea.

"We wanted to come back; they wanted us back. But we didn't want to do the same show we've done the last two years," said Hall. "So we thought, 'Let's be completely adventurous!' "

One aspect of that adventure is working with new actors. The collaboration has forced members of the "Conni's" crew out of their comfortable shorthand and helped expand their dynamic company.

"A big thrust of the restaurant show is about building community, and [with 'The Secret Social'] we are actually growing our community artistically," said Frace.

For Cleveland actors, the partnership has exposed them to a new creative process, with the director as "editor" of the work-in-progress and "Conni's" veterans doing double duty as actors and coaches.

Before a quick rehearsal break, Frace parked himself at the piano and urged Cleveland's Dionne Atchison to belt out Eric Carmen's cheesy-yet-irresistible love ballad "All By Myself" as though nobody were watching.

"I can't hear you, darlin'!" he said. "Sing it out!"

As they worked the scene, Atchison's mousy warble became a self-assured roar.

"I know I'm not the best singer," she said later, before joining in a yelping salsa number, with Frace on horn. "But now, I'll just go for it."

Croot and her team started conceptualizing "The Secret Social" in August, cooking up not just a new cast of characters and a script from scratch, but a secret handshake. Will guests need to know it to gain entry?

"All you need is your ticket," the director deadpanned.

Like "Conni's Avant Garde Restaurant," audience participation is optional. Brave souls will have the opportunity to try their own feats of strength and trip the light fantastic -- "or they can sit back and relax," said Hall.

Other requirements for membership are more ethereal. "We need them to believe in miracles and true love," she said.

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